


The Road to Hell

by EggParty



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Egg Laying, Happy Ending, M/M, Mechpreg, Medical Elements, Mention of Surgery, Mention of sparklings, Mpreg, Oviposition, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, Tentacles, graphic birth, induced labor, non-con, tummy bulge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 08:45:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4953892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EggParty/pseuds/EggParty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Lost Light stops to attempt a good deed, and it goes viciously wrong for Rodimus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Repost. And also, I'm an egghell lovin' fiend. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Please heed those tags, folks.

Drift took even steps backwards. He had Rodimus in his arms, his hands supporting the captain under his shoulder joints and dragging his sticky, unconscious body back to the ship.

“Ultra Magnus?” Drift timed his steps with his breathing. “I have Rodimus. Call Ratchet.”

* * *

“Drift, you’re with me.”

Rodimus called up a handful of the crew for a mission. Something was blocking power, the city was going to pay the crew for helping them, that was about all anyone knew. Rodimus had ordered bots to pair up, groups of two or three to scan the powerplant and find anything that could be the source of the lack of power.

“Thanks for picking me, Rodimus.” Drift smiled, as others passed by them to exist the ship.

“You kidding me? These are the only people I could get to volunteer for this mission. Except for Perceptor, I ordered him onto this one.” Rodimus put a hand on Drift’s shoulder. “Not gonna leave you alone with any of them. Except Perceptor. The rest, I dunno, Drift, they might…”

“I know.” Drift patted Rodimus’ fingers. Being an ex-Decepticon-turned-Autobot wasn’t the easiest life, for one in such a position or the Autobots around him.

“So, shall we?” Rodimus comically held an arm out toward the exit. Drift laughed, and led Rodimus off the ship.

The planet’s weather was comfortable with bright suns, clear skies and dry but inside the powerplant was something else; Uncomfortable mechanical noises that sounded like stalling engines and jammed pistons, dark and seemingly wet.

“Okay, if I understood the building owner right, and I’m certain I got most of it,” Rodimus brought up a holographic map. “The problem should be somewhere along the main… conduit? That’s not right, uh…”

Drift peered at the map, looking at the marks Rodimus had placed on it. “Mainline. We’re looking for the mainline. That’s where water would come through, hydropower.”

“Cool. That would be… There’s six of them.”

“Wait, what?” Drift glanced between all the colored marks.

“Aughhh, there's six of them! I marked them all the same, we have six to check.”

“I’m not surprised there’s more than one, this is a big place, it powers a big city.” Drift hummed. “I guess send a coordinate to the other teams, how many do we have?”

“Including us, we have five.” Rodimus started sending coordinates to the other teams dispersed through the building. “Everyone, you’ve all been sent coordinates. Go there, tell me if there’s any blockages there, if anything’s damaged, stopped. Anything like that.”

A cacophony of “Got it”s, “Roger that”s, and “Yes Sir”s came back.

“Well, that’s that. We’ll check two ourselves since I guess that’s what captains do.” Rodimus shrugged, putting away the map and he picked the first hallway to disappear into with Drift right behind him.

Another turn, a right, left, and then just a long, long stretch of hallway with blacked-out screens.

“This building isn’t that big, the line has to be here somewhere.” Drift glanced upward. “Rodimus, check your map again.”

The light of the holomap lit up the hallway dimly, enough to be a small comfort in the dark. “We’re near, we just need to make another left, and then it should be overhead.”

Drift let out a sigh of relief. Dark places were exhausting. “Let’s get this over with.”

“I thought you liked exploring new places.” Rodimus laughed, finding the left turn they were looking for.

“Not places like this. Something feels off about this place, and I have no idea if it’s due to the power outage, or if this building is always like this.”

“Pfft. It’s just dark, Drift. It’s okay.” Rodimus moved through the dark, a hand on the wall and Drift’s hands on his spoiler. “We’re gonna fix that. Get paid. Then leave.”

When they found the line they were looking for, several calls came through. “It’s not this one, sir.” “This one’s fine!” “All there was to fix here was a small leak, I’m frustrated that I was pulled out of my work f-”

Rodimus hung up.

“This has to be the one. If it’s not this one we’ll have to go find the other one, and I’m done with being in this place.” Drift huffed.

“It looks like it is. Look.” Rodimus pointed, and there was a solid stream of water coming off the huge pipe. “Something’s wrong here, at least. Boost me up.”

Drift managed to get his hands under Rodimus’ feet, hefting him up. Rodimus stretched, reached and pulled himself up onto the pipe, climbing on bolts that had been pushed out.

“What’s it looks like up there?” Drift asked.

“Bad.” Rodimus chuckled. “I think this is it. Bolts are being pushed out, and the metal is all warped outwards.”

“Then there’s a block further down this line. It’s causing backup, and pressure.” Drift answered from the dark below Rodimus. He peered over the edge, and could only see Drift’s optics and biolights hovering in the dark. “How are you going to get down?”

“I’m not, get up here. There’s a maze of hallways under this pipe, the block could be over a room.”

It took a few tries, but Drift managed to hit the wall hard enough and kick off it to be caught at the wrist by Rodimus, both scrambling to stay on the pipeline.

“Alright, uh… which direction?”

Drift put his helm to the metal, but it was only a second or two before he pulled away, shaking his head side to side. “The water isn’t moving at all, or there’s no water at all so I can’t tell. See if there’s any arrows painted on this thing?”

“Why don’t we ever have flashlights?” Rodimus laughed, bringing up the holomap solely for a light source. After careful leaning and clinging to one another to avoid falling off, they found an old worn-away arrow, and started crawling along in that direction.

“...How long are the main pipes?” Drift asked.

“They run the entire course of the building.” Rodimus answered. “Pretty long, but we don’t have to check the entire thing. We’ll eventually find that. Uh. Stop. Stop!”

Drift’s nose bumped into Rodimus’ neck, chest against spoiler. “What? What is it? Is it the blockage?”

“Probably.”

“What do you mean ‘probably’?”

“I found a big hole.”

“In the pipe?!”

“Yeah.”

“What, did it explode?” Drift struggled to peer around Rodimus.

“No… looks more like something tore in.”

“Fantastic.”

“We can fit inside.” Rodimus said, shuffling himself inside, tucking his spoiler in.

“Rodimus, no wait. We should tell someone first.” Drift peered into the hole, watching Rodimus’ biolights.

“Oh, yeah.” Rodimus could be heard shuffling. “Lost Light crew, I’m inside a pipe. Drift and I found the busted one, so we’ll be fixing it. Good job everyone, go back to the ship if you want.”

“Nice.” Drift said sarcastically as he fit himself inside, right behind Rodimus. “Crawling through the pipe, then?”

“‘Til we find the blockage, and then I’m gonna tear it up.”

“Elegant.”

“Shut up.” Rodimus laughed. “There are worse things to do together.”

Only minutes passed before Rodimus let out a disgusted noise, and Drift ran into Rodimus again from his sudden stop.

“Found the blockage?”

“Yep.”

“What is it?” Drift asked. “Is it sewage? Garbage?”

“Worse, it’s… it’s slimy. I think it’s alive. Sort of. Maybe it was alive?”

“Gross. Pull it, push it, do something to move it.”

“On it.”

Rodimus moved to cut away at it, after thinking for a second that maybe firing weapons wasn’t a great idea. One cut, and whatever it was moved to grab his wrist. “Uh oh.”

“‘Uh oh’? Rodimus, please don’t ‘uh oh’ like that in the da-”

“Drift, this thing is alive and just grabbed me.”

“... Uh oh.” Drift grabbed onto Rodimus, pulling as best as he could while on his own stomach. “We’ll back up, call reinforcements a-”

In an instant, without being able to see, both were pulled through the pipe by whatever it was that had grabbed Rodimus. Spinning through darkness until the creature had pulled them through another hole it had made, into a glowing green room.

They both coughed, Drift dangling from Rodimus’ ankle, still clinging on.

“Drift!” Rodimus hacked. “This room i-”

“Bioluminescence.” Drift choked out the words. “Not power.”

“Are we near the floor?” Rodimus asked.

“Uhh,” Drift looked downward. “Yea. Sort of. Why?”

Rodimus started thrashing in the creature’s grip, effective only in causing Drift to crash to the floor. “Hold on!” Drift pulled out a sword.

The creature was huge. Bigger than anything that should have been able to fit in a space so small. Sticky looking, shiny in the low green light, and bigger than either of the cybertronians. Drift lunged, a hack here, a slash there before the creature swept his legs with a thick limb, putting him on his back

“Rodimus!”

The grey-green creature pulsed, followed by red and gold fading into it’s coloration. “I think it likes me.” Rodimus said. “Maybe it’s got ears. Hey, buddy, put me down and get out of this building. You’re causing a lot of problems. Go elsewhere.”

A loud, roaring grumble before thinner limbs darted out, sticky tentacles slapping themselves onto Rodimus’ armor.

“I think it likes you, but I don’t think it’s a good thing.” Drift called out. The swordsmech struggled to get up, the floor was sticky and some part of the creature had wrapped around one of his thin ankles.

“I’m starting to get that…” Rodimus groaned, struggling but the creature only held on tighter. It started pulling Rodimus closer to the bulk of its body, writhing and sliding against itself.

Drift watched the creature pull on Rodimus, parting his legs wide and a new tentacle groped at him.

“Drift..!” Rodimus blurted out. “Call that backup- Call that backup now!”

Drift scrambled to open the comm lines. “This is Drift hailing the Lost Light! We are captured, I repeat, Rodimus and I are captured! Do you read?” Drift panted. “Rodimus, all I’m getting is static!”

“Hope for the best, then!” Rodimus yelled. He felt hot from anger and stress, this creature shouldn’t be pawing for his interface array, especially in front of Drift. The joints in his hips hurt, being pulled apart too far and struggled against the parts of the creature holding his arms back. Something slid up his back, hot and sticky and he arched away from it on reflex, pushing into the tentacle in front of him.

“Drift, get out of here!”

“Like I’m leaving you with this cr-”

“Drift, I’m not asking you as a friend, I am ordering you as _your captain_ to get out!” Rodimus barked. “Whatever it does to me it’ll probably do to you next!”

Drift still struggled to get up at all while the creature ripped off Rodimus’ modesty paneling, eliciting a sharp yell. A thick tentacle nudged at his valve, smearing thick and sticky fluids all over.

“Drift! _Go!_ ”

The invading creature slowly plunged itself into Rodimus, drawing out only a little to help in going deeper and reaching the back of his valve with little effort. Rodimus thrashed wildly, pulling as hard as he could, hoping to slip out of the monster’s grip, all the while yelling, yelling at the monster, yelling at Drift.

Drift was below, hacking away at tentacle after tentacle, the creature rumbling from the pain but refused to slow its barrage on Drift, or its invasion of Rodimus.

Rodimus locked up, stiff and tense as the tentacle slowly worked his valve, growing thicker and straining his calipers to capacity. Small warnings came up on his HUD, but there was nothing he could do about them. Despite filling him, it kept pushing and pushing, stuffing more of itself into him. Rodimus bucked and pulled, fingers trying to grab at anything but all the tentacles were wrapped around him too many times, holding him with a combined strength greater than his own.

He choked on his own heavy venting when he felt a small jolt of pain in the back of his valve, a hurt that turned into an ache at further prodding.

Something, some part of this tentacle was able to pierce him and get into his gestation tank.

“No…” Rodimus whined. He twitched his hips, trying to pull away, to dislodge the thick tentacle from his body. He could feel the creature pulse and throb in his aching valve, but aside from that it seemed to be doing… nothing. A whole lot of sitting still. Rodimus managed to look, to see Drift was still fighting against everything this monster threw at him. Maybe Drift had done enough damage to make this alien stop for now. But if Rodimus wasn’t a threat, Drift was making himself out to be one. He’d told him to leave! “Drift… get out..!”

“I’m not leaving without you, _sir_.” Drift yelled, his sentence ending with a bite to it.

Rodimus groaned when the tentacle in his valve moved, wriggling inside him. He ached somewhere deep. Tentacles moved all over him, leaving trails of slime in streaks across his armor, dinged, scratched, and filthy now. He could feel his valve stretch even more periodically, and he could hear his armor groan. Everything felt tight, like he was too big for the shell that was his frame.

And then, movement; movement not in his valve, and not on his armor. Movement deep in his core. He moved his hips, wincing at the ache and strange sensations.

There was definitely something inside him. Something was getting inside him.

Unknown to him, out of his vision, Drift had worked his way closer to the body of the beast and plunged swords into it over and over, a weapon in each hand.

A loud rumble shook the room, and it seemed the creature finally had enough of Drift. It pulled itself out of Rodimus and dropped him, and he let out a short but painful scream when he hit the floor. The beast swept Drift’s legs, knocking him over once more before it slithered away faster than either could transform. It slid up the wall, pulled itself into the pipe, and was gone.

“Rodimus!”

Drift rolled over, groaning and using a sword to push himself off the ground. Rodimus didn’t move when he called him. The white and red bot stumbled over, calling his name several times.

Alive but unconscious, Rodimus lay there on the floor. Drift checked him over fast, only looking for any bleeding or broken joints before he gathered his swords and then half-scooped the captain up the best he could.

Drift switched his comm link on, sending personal and public messages out to any of his contacts he had.

“Lost Light, is anyone there? Please respond.”

“Lost Light, this is Drift. I have an emergency, please respond.”

“Please, if anyone can hear me, respond.”

“Rodimus is hurt. I’m hurt. I’m dragging him to the ship. Please have med bay standing by.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No smut, just light clinical stuff. Skip to Ch3 for what you're likely here for!

Ultra Magnus had the medical team scrambled as soon as a message got through. Drift had eventually gotten close enough that his calls came through, and Ultra Magnus was the first to bark out orders.

“Drift exaggerates, and so does Rodimus is a reckless adrenaline-seeker.” Ratchet crossed his arms. “I doubt either are that badly hurt, but I’ll keep the team ready.”

“Drift and Rodimus may exaggerate, but I will not take the chance if they are.” Magnus said with a scowl. Ratchet was right that they both were prone to stretching the truth but when it came to crew injuries, he couldn’t bring himself to take that risk.

Not with Drift’s message sounding as desperate as it was.

Ultra Magnus and Ratchet both waited, until they could see Drift, walking backwards slowly and dragging Rodimus through the sand. Ratchet could only tell it was Drift by the shape of his armor, his helm and spaulders due to the bot being so dirty he wasn’t white anymore.

“What happened?” Ratchet asked, hands instantly on Rodimus for vital signs.

“The blockage was some alien. Some beast.” Drift didn’t fight against Magnus pulling him away from Rodimus. “It-it-it-”

“I can tell what happened.” Ratchet groaned, opening up a comm line. “First Aid, clear the med bay if possible, prep the back room.”

“That’s for emergency surgery.” First aid replied. “How bad is Ro-”

“He’s going to need the privacy, away from other patients. Prep the room.” Ratchet ordered, before hanging up. “Magnus, carry him. Drift,” the oldest mech grabbed Drift by the wrist, pulling him along and storming through the ship. “order everyone into their hab suites.”

“U-uh, yeah.” Drift was let go, and he made his way to the bridge while Ratchet and Magnus split off towards the medical ward. “Attention Lost Light, we’re having a, er, minor complication. Everyone needs to exit the hallways. Hab suites, training rooms, the bar, please promptly exit the hallways. Thank you.”

Soon as he was finished, he gave exactly two minutes for people to clear the halls before he transformed and sped directly to Medical.

He stormed past those in the med bay, those who were awake were sitting up and quite alarmed but Drift ignored them. He moved to the double doors in the back, only to find them locked.

“Drift? you look terrible.” “Who was that? I didn’t recognize who Ultra Magnus was holding.” “Ratchet locked the door, Drift.” “I’ve never seen Ratchet look like that, ever.” “Ultra Magnus left in a hurry.”

Ultra Magnus.

“Where is he?” Drift looked around. “Ultra Magnus. Where is he?”

“He’s probably heading back to his office.”

Drift left as fast as he’d entered, and made a beeline for the office.

“What happened?” Drift yelled, barging in.

“You were the one there, Drift, you know what happened.” Ultra Magnus slammed his hands on the desk. “Would you please tell me what happened in there?!”

“That monster..! It! It!” Drift yelled, slamming a fist into the wall and leaving a dent. Drift sighed, trembling. “It got into his valve.”

“...Well that explains why Ratchet ordered privacy.” Magnus sighed. “Other than telling me I had to leave and locking himself in that room with Rodimus, I do not have any more information for you.”

Ultra Magnus ushered Drift out, with a recommendation to visit the wash racks.

He had barely begun to really scrub away the leftover film and solidified grime between his plating when Ratchet called.

“Tell me he’s okay.” Drift asked, shutting off the stream and not even bothering to dry before running across the deck to the medical wing of the ship.

“He’ll live. That was one of the first things I figured out.” Ratchet said, voice gruff. “He’s awake, and he’s wondering where you’re at. The door’s unlocked.”

Drift wasted no time. He plowed through the doors and found Rodimus, awake and reclined back, with Ratchet and First Aid standing next to him.

“Hi Drift.” Rodimus waved. Drift said nothing, simply walking over and gently hugging the mech, kissing his gold crest. “Eugh, you’re wet.”

“So I got some good news, some bad news and some weird news, Rodimus.” Ratchet said.

“What’s the good news?” Rodimus asked.

“You’re definitely positively going to live.”

“Okay, nice. Nice. That’s a good start.” Rodimus grinned.

“The bad news is you’re going to spend a few days in medical with me.”

“That’s an awful joke, Ratchet.” But when Ratchet only furrowed his brow and made his scowl more prominent, Rodimus sank back into himself. “...What’s the weird news?”

“The weird news is that whatever you two ran into seems to have… deposited its offspring into your gestation tank.”

“Offspring?” Drift asked, looking from Ratchet and back to Rodimus. And then to Rodimus’ midsection, now noticing how it was quite noticeably distended. Not huge, but it was there.

“Yeah, we ran some scans. You have something alive in there. Multiple somethings.” First Aid chipped in from where he had moved to, from a small console, scrolling through documents feverishly and talking a mile per minute. “I’m looking up any information we might have about this, this isn’t a usual case.”

“Don’t mind him, he’s nervous because he’s young, he’s never seen anything like this before.”

“Ratchet, you’ve seen something like this before? Right?” Rodimus asked, leaning more into Drift now. “That’s why you’re a lot calmer, right?”

“Never seen anything like this, Rodimus, but I’ve seen enough weird stuff in my day that this hasn’t really registered on my radar.”

It fell quiet.

“Ratchet? We might have options.” First Aid waved the CMO over, and the two doctors stared at text on a screen.

“Options?” Drift looked at Rodimus, big optics staring at him.

“Ratchet was talking about surgery earlier.” Rodimus said. “He also said I’d be in here for two weeks on bedrest, and here still for like… at least a month while all that heals.”

“Primus.” Drift gasped.

“Yeah, sucks. All my work would be split between you and Magnus, unless it’s something Ratchet thinks I could do in bed.” Rodimus huffed. “Drift, I can’t spend months living in here. I don’t think Ratchet wants that either, that’s why he’s looking for a second option, I bet.”

“So, what, you’re just gonna keep those… whatever they are in you instead?” Drift smirked, Rodimus having already diffused the tension with humor. “You can’t transform like this!”

“I can!” Rodimus refuted, before his optics went to his midsection, hands sliding on this new curve. “I mean. I think I can. I probably can.”

“Sure.” Drift rolled his optics, smirking. “How are you feeling, though?”

“Heavy.” Rodimus bit at his lower lip. “Like I drank way, way too much. If I was fueling up, I would have stopped long before I felt like this.”

“Well, we may have an option for you, besides surgery.” Ratchet interrupted. “First Aid, explain it while I bring up more information.”

“So,” First Aid drew out, stepping only marginally closer to the captain and the TIC. “there’s a way, besides surgery, to get everything out.”

“Super!” Rodimus relaxed.

“Well, you say that. You still have the option of surgery, you’d be unconscious with no pain and Ratchet and I would manually remove the eggs an-”

“Eggs?” Rodimus and Drift both asked, with Rodimus squinting hard.

“Yes, eggs. Think little spheroid cases, you have seven by the way. Anyways, we’d remove them manually and then weld you back up. the thing is, we have to cut through a lot to get to the gestation tank, if we only had to cut armor you’d be out same-day but…”

“...Yeah.”

“And then afterwards you’d be in the med bay until Ratchet clears you. The two weeks bedrest, one month post-recovery are just estimates, Ratchet and I don’t know how long your actual recovery would take because this is a unu-”

“Unusual case, yeah, got that.” Rodimus said blandly, hand reaching for Drift’s.

“What’s the other option?” Drift asked, trying to not let his nerves show.

“We put you on a drip of certain drugs, which will force your tank open and the eggs can come out the way they went in. Neither of us have any idea how painful this would be, but we can’t use anesthesia.” First Aid explained. “We can’t start either until tomorrow though. You need to recuperate some more, sir. But you have time to decide which is best for you.”

“Thanks, First Aid.” Rodimus said. “And thank you too, Ratchet.”

“Call us if you need us, we’ll be nearby.” Ratchet said, exiting with First Aid on his heels.

The doors had barely closed when Rodimus let out a loud groan. “This is the worst.”

“It is pretty bad.” Drift looked at Rodimus’ stomach. “I didn’t even think our bodies could do this.”

“First Aid told me they’re not supposed to. Not like...this.” He said with worry in his voice, gesturing to his stomach with one hand. “That’s why I’m not allowed to get up. Which I’m okay with. I honestly do not feel great.”

Drift leaned over him, kissing Rodimus gently. “I’m sorry.”

“Why didn’t you leave me there?” Rodimus asked, voice low.

“I’m… sorry?”

“I ordered you to leave me there and believe me I’m really glad you didn’t, but…”

“Rodimus…” Drift held Rodimus’ hand with both of his. “I’d never leave you anywhere. I didn’t leave you in that powerplant, and I’m not going to leave you in surgery either.”

“What if I… wasn’t thinking of choosing surgery?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's where all those medical warnings come in. But also, egg laying.

Rodimus laid completely still on the table while Rachet and First Aid moved around, preparing. They both wheeled over screens, and hung labeled bags of medicine. Rodimus distracted himself with trying (and failing) to pronounce them, while Drift sat next to him.

Rodimus was great at not looking scared or nervous. Drift knew better, but he also knew that if he did not, he’d believe Rodimus’ calm demeanor.

“This is a really mild painkiller,” First aid droned on, pushing a needle into the unique patient. “It’s about the strongest we’ll be able to give you. This,” He held up a second bag, with green liquid in it. “is the actual drug that’ll make your body do what it needs to.”

“Cool.” Rodimus said, barely listening, now focusing instead on running his hands over his stomach. He wasn’t sure, but Ratchet said he looked bigger, which is why he moved Rodimus’ surgery a few hours earlier.

“You sure you want to do this like… this? Rodimus?” Drift asked. He was so heavy with concern he could feel it in his chest. “You can still opt for surgery. Ultra Magnus and I can handle the workload.”

“I know you two can, because you two do the bulk of it already anyways.” Rodimus laughed. “But I can’t be out of commission that long. I can’t be in here that long. I want whatever option is fastest, and this is apparently it.”

“This is just to keep an eye on your vital signs.” Ratchet plugged in a monitor he pulled over into Rodimus. “Old tech, but it’ll work.” He adjusted the screen’s placement, before getting out of the way for his assistant doctor.

First Aid walked up to him and after a nod, the ambulance held Rodimus’ right arm, and inserted a needle into him, between pieces of armor. “This one’s just energon, to keep your fuel levels steady.”

“We’re not sure if you can handle severe changes in fuel, or keep any down, so no drinking or eating until you’re done.” Ratchet added, while First Aid promptly stuck Rodimus with another needle, attached to the green bag to go with his painkiller, energon, and the vital equipment already stuck to his wrist.

“This one is the actual medication, so as soon as this gets in you, you should start feeling something.” First aid warned, but Rodimus held out his arm, and the medic stuck him with another needle.

Drift sat quietly, unmoving to stay out of the way and let Rodimus’ hand hold onto him so hard, he wouldn’t be surprised if he had gold paint transferred onto him.

Rodimus suddenly squeezed a little harder, breathing out and sitting up a little.

“You okay?” Drift asked, leaning in.

“It just… feels weird. I guess it’s working, then.”

“Just relax as much as you can, sir.” First aid patted his shoulder.

“So, what now? What next?” Rodimus asked, readjusting his frame, trying to get comfortable.

“Nothing.” Rodimus and Drift both stared at the young medic. “Just have to let this run it’s course now. Ratchet and I are just here to keep an eye on you, or intervene if there's a complication.”

“Oh.” Rodimus went back to his struggle of getting comfortable, while First Aid left him with Drift.

“You still feeling alright?” Drift moved his chair closer. “You’re starting to grip really tightly.”

“Yeah, that’s how my insides feel.” Rodimus groaned, laying back, and shutting his optics off. “Feels awful. But it won’t last.” The red and gold mech suddenly sucked in sharply, holding his breath. Drift flinched from the hard grip, but he stayed put. “...Wow, that was awful.”

“Im pretty sure those will probably get worse.”

“Ughh.”

“I know.”

Hours passed. Rodimus quickly became worrisome levels of miserable, and every time Drift asked if there was anything to be done about it, both medics reminded him each time that “No, this is what is supposed to happen” and “No, we can’t pause it to give him a break”.

Drift hated feeling useless, hated sitting around but that was all there was to do for everyone. Except for Rodimus, who let out pained groans through a clenched jaw as he constantly moved around on the table.

“I don’t wanna do this anymore, I want surgery. Rachet, Ra-Ratchet.” Rodimus managed to choke out, while Drift stroked his arm. “I want surgery.”

“Sorry, Rodimus.” Ratchet shrugged as he walked over, looking at the nearby monitor. “Unless you’re about to die, I’m not opting for interrupting.”

“His vitals are fine.” First Aid leaned in, whispering to Drift. “I know he seems to be in bad shape, but he’s actually fine.”

“Thank you.” Drift smiled, until Rodimus gave Drift’s hand a severe death grip, causing the white mech to let out a yelp. Rodimus let out a string of apologies when he was able to breathe again.

“You’re probably in the later stages now, and since I know what I’m looking for, open up and get those legs up.” Rodimus ended up proving too exhausted to move his legs, and already working with modified equipment, First Aid and Drift were ‘volunteered’ to hold Rodimus’ legs up. Gently, he pushed two fingers into the valve, reaching for the entrance to his tank. “Your tank’s as open as it’s gonna get.” Ratchet pulled out of Rodimus, reaching for a scanner and pressing it to the underside of Rodimus’ round stomach, ignoring his patient’s groaning.

“Something wrong?” Drift watched worriedly.

“Just double-checking the size of the eggs against the size of Rodimus’ diameter. He should be fine.”

Ratchet told both of his helpers that they could put the patient’s legs down, and Drift returned to sitting by Rodimus’ side, wiping condensation off his cheek.

“Almost over, Rodimus.” He sighed, trying to comfort him.

“I feel different.” Rodimus panted. He started straining, letting his legs part wider.

“That’s because this is probably it. Final stage, you’re almost done.” First Aid said, an attempt to comfort both Rodimus and Drift.

Drift ended up sitting on the table behind Rodimus, legs parted with Rodimus between them and both of Rodimus’ hands interlaced with his own, spoiler against his chest. First Aid held up one of his legs, while Ratchet kneeled between them.

“Gotta bear down, Rodimus. Push downward.” Ratchet instructed the best he could for a situation he’d never been in before. Rodimus pushed, holding his breath as he leaned forward into it. Ratchet could see his valve opening up from the inside-out.

Rodimus shook his head side to side. “I-it’s huge, it’s in my valve and it’s huge and I don’t wanna do this.”

“You gotta push again, you gotta push to get it out, Rodimus.” Ratchet said sternly. “Take a deep breath and push again.”

Rodimus shook, but he nodded and pushed again. The egg, green and purple in color, fell out of his valve with a wet plop! and Ratchet was quick to move it off to the side.

“That’s one, Rodimus.” First Aid said positively. If he had a mouth, he’d have given a confident grin.

Rodimus managed to quickly get out the second and third eggs, but he was too exhausted for the fourth, falling limp in Drift’s lap.

Ratchet pushed his digits into his valve again, finding how far the egg had left to go, and found it wasn’t much. “Push again, Rodimus. One good push and you’ll be more than half done.”

“I can’t, I, they’re moving faster than I can.” Rodimus trembled. “I can’t.” He groaned again, back arching off the table a little. “T-there’s another..! There's another coming!” Rodimus’ body forced him to push, calipers moving  and two eggs came out in quick succession.

“Two more, Rodimus.” First Aid updated him, while Drift kept Rodimus sitting upright. “You’re almost done.”

His valve spent, the last two eggs didn’t hurt as much to push out. Rodimus groaned, holding Drift so tightly his plating groaned and another egg was freed.

“One more…” He panted. “One more.”

Ratchet inspected the six eggs already laid. “This is the big one. I thought you already pushed it out, but I think it’s still in you. It’s a little bigger than the others.”

Rodimus groaned.

Ratchet slipped his fingers back in while he could. “I’m going to try to help this one out. Start pushing now, Rodimus.”

With a huff, Rodimus lurched forward, straining and pushing. Ratchet could feel the hard shell of the egg against his fingertip, and he moved in an attempt to make sure it could even exit his tank.

He froze when, after another hard push from Rodimus, the egg didn’t move.

“Ratchet?” First Aid whispered. “It’s stuck, isn’t it?”

Ratchet nodded in affirmation. “Rodimus, I gotta do something different, just push when I tell you to.”

Rodimus nodded weakly, and Ratchet put his hand on Rodimus’ belly, pressing firmly and feeling for the egg’s placement. His hand moved lower, to the bottom of the curve to his frame and pushed just enough to find the egg. Rodimus wriggled underneath, but Ratchet pressed with one hand and felt with his fingertip until the egg had turned, moved into another position inside him. “Okay, push now.”

Ratchet breathed a relieved sigh when he felt the egg leave the gestation tank, and he pulled both hands away from Rodimus. He was quick to get the egg out. And that was the end of it.

Knowing it was the last, Rodimus collapsed, optics shut off and panting hard, frame steaming from how hot it was and condensation had beaded on his armor. First Aid gently put his leg down, and removed the IV drip of drugs.

“We’ll leave the monitor and energon in,” He spoke quietly to Drift. “and we’re gonna move him off you, into a real bed.” The three of them shifted, moved, lifted Rodimus from the table to a bed and wheeled him off to a private corner of the operating room to recover.

* * *

“Hey. How are you feeling?”

The first thing Rodimus saw when onlining his optics was Drift’s face, up close to his.

“Is it over?”

“Yep. And you did great.”

“My body hurts, I don’t remember anything.”

“You might, later. You just woke up.”

“And the eggs?”

“They’re destroyed. Magnus, Ratchet and I didn’t want to risk them hatching on the ship, and doing this to more of our crew.”

“Good. Good.” Rodimus sighed, settling down. “That made it onto the top five of ‘Worst Things To Happen to Me’.”

“Was it really that bad?”

“...It’s in the the top three on that list.”

Drift laughed, and Rodimus was quick to join him.

“Your armor’s still a mess though.” Drift said, and Rodimus looked to his stomach. It was still as distended as it was before all the agony he went though, and he stared quietly until Drift gently rubbed the warped plating there.

“I really liked how I looked there.” He sighed. “I had curves where I wanted them, nothing was messed up.”

“I think it’s cute.” Drift smiled, and chuckled when Rodimus flinched at the weird compliment.

“Wait, you actually like it?” Rodimus felt his face heat up. “Uh… I mean, I could keep it but…”

“Don’t worry, First Aid said that once your gestation tank goes back down in size the plating will pop back into place.”

“Then I guess enjoy it while it lasts?” Rodimus smiled.

“While you were resting, I was asking Ratchet and First Aid what they knew about gestation tanks… not a lot of Cons had them, so I’m honestly a little uneducated.”

“Alot of Bots dont have them either. Not the MTOs especially, although some older CC bots do.” Rodimus talked. “I’m forged, so of course I have one naturally.”

“Some forged don’t. I know Ratchet doesn’t, he told me.”

“Yeah lots don’t due to war injuries. Or some, I know a guy who opted to have his removed, for more weapons storage.”

“But you still have yours.”

“Yeah. What about you? Cause if we’re gonna have kids… We can have sparklings but I’m not doing this again.”

“I… ah.” Memories of the Dead End came back. “I… I actually sold mine.”

Rodimus’ face darkened. “Sold yours? Wh…”

“I had something someone would pay for.” Drift shut his optics. “I was starving, Rodimus.”

“Well, that settles that.”

Drift flinched. “Guess we won’t be making any sparklings.”

“Huh? No, Drift, I’ll carry them.”

“But you just said-”

“Cause I figured, you being a forged bot, that you’d still have yours, which means an option not to carry. But if we want kids, we don’t have an option. So that settles that.” Rodimus kissed Drift. “Let’s just wait awhile... A long while.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to send me suggestions @0palheart on tumblr!


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